


In This Together

by Golden_Asp



Series: Tales of the IronAgent Kind [8]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Phil tells Steve and Tony about Bucky, Some angst, civil war avoidance, cuddle puddle protocol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:34:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23656189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Golden_Asp/pseuds/Golden_Asp
Summary: While working with JARVIS to uncover how deep the Hydra infestation in SHIELD goes, Phil discover a file about the Winter Soldier.  In that file they find a specific file dated "December 16, 1991."Now Phil has to tell Steve and Tony that not only is Bucky Barnes alive, but he killed Tony's parents.He is not looking forward to this.
Relationships: Phil Coulson/Tony Stark
Series: Tales of the IronAgent Kind [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1586353
Comments: 12
Kudos: 200





	In This Together

**Author's Note:**

> Let's be honest, if Phil had been around Civil War probably wouldn't have happened because a whole lot of shit leading up to it wouldn't have happened with him there. Anyway, this series is part of an AU where Phil makes sure that bull shit doesn't go down. He don't have time for that.
> 
> not beta-ed.

Phil Coulson sat at his desk in Avengers Tower, his head in his hands and tears on his cheeks. He’d known for quite some time that Hydra had infiltrated SHIELD. He and JARVIS had been slowly figuring just how deep the blight went and it wasn’t good.

But the worst? The worst was right in front of him. He’d have to tell Tony. He was going to have to tell Steve and somehow make sure Steve didn’t fuck right off and ruin everything. 

But he was going to have to tell Tony and god damn it all, he wasn’t looking forward to that.

“J?” 

“Yes, Agent Coulson?” JARVIS’ voice was soft, pained.

“Lock the video up but give me the rest of the file. Where are Tony and Steve?”

“They are in the common room,” JARVIS said. “Arguing about movies again.”

Phil’s lips twitched in a smile. He gathered up the physical copies he needed and walked down the hall. He really wasn’t looking forward to this.

:::

Tony looked up as Phil walked in, a thick file under his arm and a frown on his face. He stopped his argument with Steve midword, looking at his lover in concern.

“Phil, have you been crying?”

Phil never cried. Tony had never seen him cry in the years they had been together. It worried him. He didn’t like it. Steve stood up straight, argument with Tony forgotten.

“Agent Coulson?” Steve asked.

Phil swallowed hard. “I need you both to sit down. JARVIS, no one else in the room.”

“Yes, Agent Coulson.”

Tony took a step forward. “This seems like an Agent Agent conversation and not a Phil and Tony conversation.”

“Tony…”

“Okay, now you’re starting to freak me out.”

Phil closed his eyes. “Please, sit.”

Tony perched on the edge of the couch, fingers tapping against the arc reactor. Phil knew it was a nervous tick, something Tony did when he needed reassurance that the reactor was still there, keeping him alive. Steve sat next to Tony, watching with confusion in his eyes as Phil walked around the couch. Phil gently squeezed Tony’s shoulder when he walked by.

“There’s no easy way for me to say this so I’m just going to say it,” Phil said, looking between them. He was clearly in full Agent mode.

“For more than a year, JARVIS and I have been looking into SHIELD.”

“What?” Steve asked blankly. “Why?”

“I had a suspicion that some agents were dirty and I wanted to know how far it went. We found…shit, we found a lot more than that.”

“I wondered what you and J were up to,” Tony muttered. “How high does it go?”

“All the way to the top, but there was something else.” Phil took a deep breath. “Hydra infiltrated SHIELD.”

Steve went white and Tony put his hand on his shoulder, both their eyes wide. “You’re sure about this?” Tony asked.

“No,” Steve said, almost desperate. “I got rid of Hydra.”

“I’m sorry, Steve,” Phil said. “Hydra has infiltrated all the way to the top. Pierce, Sitwell, Rumlow. Many others.”

“Fucking hell,” Tony said. “Who do you trust?”

“At the moment? The only agents that aren’t Avengers that I fully trust are myself, Nick, Everett Ross, and Hill.”

Steve sat there, his head in his hands. Tony patted his back awkwardly, not quite sure how to comfort him.

“JARVIS and I have been isolating Hydra files,” Phil said. “We found…shit. Steve, I need you to look at me and I need you to stay calm.”

Steve lifted his head, face ragged. Tony rubbed circles on his shoulder and they both looked at Phil.

“What more is there?” Steve asked. 

“James Buchanan Barnes is alive,” Phil said bluntly. Steve rocked back like Phil’s words had physically struck him, his eyes wide.

“No. Please, no. He fell off the train. He fell! He’s dead…”

“Steve,” Tony murmured, one arm awkwardly around Steve’s broad shoulders. He wasn’t quite sure why he was here for this.

“What does Barnes have to do with Hydra?” Tony asked over Steve’s keening cry.

“Have you heard of the Winter Soldier?”

Silence. 

“He’s a ghost story,” Tony said slowly. Phil shook his head and set the file he had still been holding down. He opened it and pulled a picture out, sliding it across the table.

Steve let out a half sob, covering his mouth. He’d recognize that face anywhere.

“Christ,” Tony muttered.

“There’s…another thing,” Phil said, shifting his attention to Tony.

“I’m not going to like this, am I?” Tony asked.

“JARVIS and I found a file labeled…it was labeled December 16…”

“1991,” Tony finished, his face as white as Steve’s. Steve looked at him. He didn’t know what the date meant.

“It wasn’t an accident, Tony,” Phil said, his voice gentle.

“No,” Tony said, shaking his head. “No, Phil. Howard…Dad was drunk. It was an accident.”

Phil knelt in front of Tony but didn’t touch him. He could see the growing panic in Tony’s eyes and knew that a touch could set him off.

“It wasn’t. Hydra killed them. They sent the Winter Soldier and ordered him to make it look like an accident.”

Tony stared at him, whiskey eyes swimming with tears. “No…No, Phil.”

“I’m sorry, Tony.”

“I have to go,” Steve said, moving to stand up.

“Sit down!” Phil barked. Steve’s eyes went wide and he sat, flashing back to basic training. “I told you that you can’t go running off after Barnes. Now stay seated and give me a minute.”

Tony’s eyes were closed, head in his hands. His shoulders shook as he cried softly. Phil still knelt in front of him, not touching.

“What was in the file?” Tony asked, voice hoarse.

“It’s not pretty. Barnes was tortured and brainwashed for seventy years.”

Steve let out a moan, curling in on himself. 

“There is a set of trigger words that activate him. Say the words and he’ll do whatever his handler tells him. He’s little more than a puppet.”

Tony nodded, eyes glazed. “There’s something else, isn’t there.” It wasn’t a question.

Phil let out a long breath. “There’s video of him murdering your parents.”

“It wasn’t Bucky,” Steve said.

“Rogers, not now,” Phil said, his voice full of steel. Steve shut up.

Tony swallowed. “You watched it?”

“I did. JARVIS was with me.”

“I don’t want to watch it.”

“Then you won’t. You don’t have to.”

Tony stood up, looking around. “I need…I need…”

“Go to the penthouse, Tony,” Phil said, looking up at him. “I’ll be there soon. Do you want me to call Jim and Pepper?”

Tony nodded and staggered towards the door, face still white from shock.

“J, keep me updated on him until I get there,” Phil said. “Also, please call Jim and Pepper and tell them to get here as fast as they can. Tell them Cuddle Puddle Protocol is active.”

“Of course, Agent Coulson.”

Phil sat next to Steve and rested his hand on the bigger man’s shoulder. “Natasha and Clint are on his trail. They’re going to bring him back and we’re going to help him.”

“I should be the one to bring him back.”

“Steve, think clearly for half a damn second,” Phil said. “He’s been Hydra’s lapdog for seventy years. Hydra hates Captain America.”

“Bucky would never…”

Phil tapped the picture of the muzzled Winter Soldier. “This man is not the Bucky Barnes you remember. You need to keep that in mind. He’s not going to be the friend you remember, if he remembers you at all.”

“Why Natasha and Clint, then? Why not me?”

“You have all the subtlety of a rhino in spandex,” Phil said. “After reading his file, which I will leave with you, there three people who are truly going to be able to understand him better than any of us.”

“Who? He’s out of time, just like me.”

“Not just like you. You were on ice for all this time. He’s been defrosted and used off and on the entire seventy years. I mean, shit, Steve, he killed JFK and I know you caught up on that clusterfuck.”

Steve stared at him, blue eyes wet with tears. “As to the people who will understand what he’s been through. Clint, because he’s had his agency taken away from him. Natasha went through the Red Room. The Winter Soldier _trained_ her, Steve. She knows what it’s like to have her identity stripped away until someone else owns you.”

“And the third?”

“Tony,” Phil said. “He knows what it’s like to have an unwanted body modification forced on him, and he’s been through torture. You have to be patient, Steve. We will do our best to help Barnes without tipping off Hydra. We’re going to dismantle them from the inside, and if that doesn’t work, we’re going to burn SHIELD to the ground and start over. But I promise you they won’t get Barnes back.”

Steve nodded and Phil pushed the thick files into his hands. “It’s not pleasant reading. Thor and Bruce are going to stay with you.”

The only two who had any chance of stopping Steve if he decided to make a break for it.

“Let Clint and Natasha do what they do best. Clint brought Nat in, and Barnes might even remember Natasha. I want you to meet up with a VA counselor named Sam Wilson. He’s been vetted by me and JARVIS. He’s clean.”

“I finished the therapy you required,” Steve said mulishly.

“Yes, but Sam is going to help you figure out how to help Barnes without being overbearing. I know what I’m doing, Steve. Let me do it and we’ll get him back sooner.”

Steve nodded and the door opened, Thor and Bruce walking in.

“JARVIS filled us in,” Bruce said, sitting on one side of Steve.

“We are here for you, friend Steve,” Thor said.

“Thanks, guys,” Phil said, standing up.

“Take care of Tony,” Bruce said, offering him a sad smile. Phil nodded and quickly left the room, heading straight for the penthouse elevator.

“J? He doing okay?”

“He is on the bed,” JARVIS said. “He pulled out a bottle of whiskey but did not drink it.”

“Okay. That’s good. Thanks.”

Phil slipped into the penthouse and walked to the master bedroom. Tony lay curled in the middle of the bed, an old Bucky Bear in his arms. Phil crawled up next to him and wrapped him in his arms.

Tony rolled over and buried his face in Phil’s chest, shoulders shaking in silent sobs. Phil stroked his hair, whispering nonsense in his ear. He wasn’t sure how long they sat there when the door opened and a worried Pepper and Jim Rhodes walked in.

“JARVIS told us,” Pepper said, kicking off her heels and getting into the bed. She pressed herself against Tony’s back and wrapped one arm around his waist. Tony whined and the bed dipped again, Rhodes laying across his legs.

“We’ve got you, Tones,” Rhodey said, wriggling around until his head rested on Tony’s thigh, one arm thrown over his waist. Phil’s grip tightened on Tony, lips grazing his temple.

“Thank you for telling me,” Tony whispered, voice rough from crying. “Thank you for not keeping it a secret.”

“I would never,” Phil said. “We’ll get through this.”

They would. It would take some time and careful introductions between Barnes and Tony when the time came, but Phil had no doubt if anyone could help Barnes, it would be Tony. He already had those stupid BARF glasses in development, and worse case he would reach out to Everett Ross who had somehow become friends with Wakandan royalty.

They would get through this. 

Phil brushed his lips over Tony’s forehead again, settling into the warmth of their closest friends.

Together.

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos are love


End file.
